Manipulator



March 23, 1943. E. E. BROSIUS MANIPULAIVOR Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 23, 1940 INVENTOR Edge/"5 Bros/us March 23, 1943. E. E; BROSIUS 2,314,686

MANIPULATOR Filed Sept. 23. 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Patented Mar. 23, 1943 STATES Parent orrme 3 Claims.

This invention relates to manipulators and particularly to manipulators employed for charging metal billets and the like to heating furnaces and withdrawing the heated billets from the furnaces and handling and manipulating the billets during the performance of forging operations thereon.

It is customary to provide one or more heating furnaces with adjacent forging equipment and manipulators of the type above mentioned are employed on a floor in front of the furnaces and communicating with the forging equipment and run about on the floor as directed by the operator to charge and withdraw billets to and from the furnaces and present the billets to the forging equipment to be operated upon thereby. Manipulators for this purpose have been used for a long period and have generally comprised a projecting peel for gripping and holding the Work, the peel being carried by a peel carrier or frame which may be raised and lowered by the operator. The peel may be rotated and the peel jaws may be closed and opened to grip and release the work.

Manipulators as heretofore employed have been of relatively large size and great length and very costly. Separate means have been provided for raising and lowering the respective ends of the peel carrier, which as a result has been considerably elongated. Such means have provided for tilting of the peel. The operating mechanism has been such that it has been subject to severe stresses during the forging operations upon the work, although such stresses were relieved to some extent by using an articulated peel. However, the primary disadvantage of the prior manipulators has been their relatively great size, particularly as to length, and their high cost. This has rendered the manipulators very difiicultly usable in or entirely unsuited for certain plants. Moreover, the investment required to purchase a manipulator has sometimes been greater than warranted by the capacity of a particular plant.

I have devised a manipulator which while adequate to perform the intended functions is of v greatly reduced size and length and of simplified construction 50 that its cost is much lower than the cost of the prior manipulators. I greatly shorten the peel carrier and consequently the main frame or chassis of the manipulator so that the over-all length of the manipulator is extremely short. This is highly important in certain uses to which the manipulator may be put. The shortness of the manipulator is contributed to by the fact that only a single peel carrier elevating device is employed instead of separate elevating devices for the respective ends of the peel carrier. I not only make the peel carrier very short longitudinally of the manipulator but I also provide for raising and lowering the peel carrier without disturbing its orientation. I find it very satisfactory to arrange the peel carrier so that the peel is always horizontal. The tilting function is eliminated. I provide for raising and lowering the peel carrier while the orientation of the peel remains fixed by employing a parallelogram or similar motion through which the peel carrier is carried by the main frame or support. The shortness of the manipulator is further contributed to by connecting the elevating means to the main supporting frame or chassis at one end thereof and connecting such elevating means with the peel support at the opposite end of the chassis. Thus the length of the manipulator may at least in a measure be determined by the length of the means required for elevating the peel.

I also provide for relieving the manpulator as a Whole of the shocks to which the peel is subjected when work held in the peel jaws is being forged. However, this feature broadly forms the subject matter of my copending application Serial No. 357,852, filed of even date herewith, and only certain details peculiar to the shock absorbing structure herein disclosed are claimed in the present application. The present invention is concerned mainly with the manipulator structure as a whole and the features Which contribute to the reduced size and cost of the manipulator and the novel functioning thereof.

Other details, objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description of a present preferred embodiment thereof proceeds.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown a present preferred embodiment of the invention, in which Figure 1 is an elevational View of a manipulator; and

Figure 2 is a plan view of the manipulator shown in Figure 1.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is provided a support or frame 2 which may be in the form of a chassis mounted upon wheels 3. Thus the manipulator shown is of the type known as an auto floor manipulator since it can be driven about on the fioor between the heating furnaces and the forging apparatus The operator sits in a seat 4. Extending upwardly from the frame 2 is a hollow mast having at its upper end a contact ring 6 with which cooperates a pivoted contact member 1 with which in turn is connected an electric cable 8. The cable 8 supplies electric power to the manipulator and extends from the contact member to a reel stationarily mounted adjacent the floor which pays out and takes in the cable as necessary as the manipulator moves about. The manipulator is driven about on the wheels 3 by an electric motor operated by the electric current derived from the cable 8, leads passing A spring 30 bears between the collar 21 and the collar 29.

The peel frame carries means designated generally by reference numeral 3| for rotating the peel and also carries means for opening and closing the peel jaws l8, but as these means for rotating the peel and for opening and closing downwardly within the hollow mast 5 from the contact ring 6 to such motor. The frame also carries a hydraulic pump which is also driven by an electric motor which derives its current from the same source. Suitable controls are provided so that the operator can drive the manipulator about and operate the various mechanisms making up the manipulator. Everything described in this paragraph is old and well known in the art and therefore is not shown and described in detail.

The material handling member of the manipulator is designated generally by reference numeral 9 and comprises a peel 9a having work gripping jaws Hi, the peel being rotatably mounted in a peel carrier or frame l. J ournaled in the main frame 2 is a shaft l2 to which are fixed a pair of opposed levers I3. Each of the levers I3 is pivotally connected to the peel carrier II at M. The main frame 2 has an upward extension l5 and opposed links l6 are pivoted to such extension at H and to the peel carrier H at I8. A plane passing through the axes of the pivots I! and i8 is parallel to a plane passing through the axes of the shaft l2 and the pivot l4 so that the peel carrier H is supported from the frame 2 by a parallelogram motion. The peel carrier H is arranged so that the peel is disposed or oriented in a horizontal direction. Due to the manner of connecting the peel carrier with the main frame this orientation of the peel remains fixed in operation of the manipulator so long as the floor upon which the manipulator operates is horizontal.

Pivoted to the frame 2 at I9 is a fluid pressure cylinder within which operates a piston having a piston rod 2|. Connections are provided from the hydraulic pump to the cylinder 20 so that when desired the piston may be moved either to the right or to the left therein, viewing Figure 1. Fastened to the end of the piston rod 2| is an abutment member 22. The piston rod 2| passes within a casing 23 whose right-hand end, viewing Figure 2, is closed and a rubber block or cushion is provided to cushion the shock when the abutment member 22 on the piston rod 2| in moving to the right reaches the closed end of the casing 23. The rubber cushion may be connected with the abutment member 22 or the casing 23. In the form shown in the drawings the right-hand end of the casing 23, viewing Figure 2, is closed by a can shaped metal end 24 within which the rubber cushion is positioned. The can shaped metal end 24 is of course open at its left-hand face so that the rubber cushion is directly exposed to the abutment member 22.

The casing 23 has trunnions 25 to which are pivoted opposed levers 26 fixed to the shaft l2. The left-hand end of the casing 23 is closed by a collar 21 through which the piston rod 2| is freely slidable. A nut 28 is adjustably positionable upon the piston rod 2| toward its right-hand end and a collar 29 abuts against the nut 28.

the peel jaws are old and well known in the art they are not shown and described in detail.

In the drawings the peel is shown in its lowermost position. With the peel in this position the piston in the cylinder 29 is at the right-hand end of its stroke. When the peel is to be raised fluid under pressure is admitted to the righthand side of the piston, viewing Figure 1, to force the piston toward the left. This, of course, moves the piston rod 2| toward the left. Upon such movement the collar 29 presses toward the left against the spring 33, which in turn presses against the collar 21, which in turn presses against the end of the casing 23. Continued movement of the piston thus moves the casing 23 toward the left. But the levers 26 which are fixed to the shaft I2 are trunnioned to the casing 23, so the result of this operation is to turn the shaft l2 in the counterclockwise direction viewing Figure 1, which swings the levers IS in the same direction and raises the peel carrier and peel. The peel may be raised to the position shown in chain lines in Figure 1. During its upward movement the peel always remains horizontal, although due to the parallelogram movement it swings somewhat forwardly away from the body of the manipulator and then rearwardly toward the body of the manipulator as it rises.

The spring 3i] is a heavy duty spring and is only partly compressed when the peel carrier and the peel carrying a billet in its jaws are raised. Thus the peel is always resiliently supported. When the manipulator is operated to place a billet carried by the peel upon an anvil and the billet is struck by a downwardly moving hammer this imparts a severe jolt or shock to the peel, but the spring 3!! takes up this shock and prevents it from being transmitted to the manipulator as a Whole. The spring .3!) is disposed far enough away from the forward end of the peel which is subjected to the greatest heat in charging and withdrawing billets to and from heating furnaces so that the spring is not deleteriously affected by such heat. Pivoting of the cylinder 20 to the frame 2 at H! allows the cylinder and the piston rod 2| and casing 23 and the associated mechanism to change their angularity as is necessary upon turning of the levers 26 about the shaft !2 whose axis is fixed.

While I have shown and described a present preferred embodiment of the invention it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A manipulator comprising, a chassis, a work manipulating peel, a peel-carrying frame at the front end of the chassis in which the peel is journaled, a system of parallel links and levers at the front end of the chassis for supporting and raising and lowering the peel-carrying frame while maintaining the peel substantially horizontal, a fluid pressure cylinder at the rear end of the chassis having a piston rod extending to the front end of the chassis and there connected with the system of links and levers for raising and lowering the peel.

2. A manipulator comprising, a chassis, a work manipulating peel, a peel-carrying frame at the front end of the chassis in which the peel is journaled, means at the front end of the chassis for supporting and raising and lowering the peelcarrying frame including a bell crank lever connected to said frame and mounted on the chassis at the front end thereof, and a fluid pressure cylinder mounted at the rear end of the chassis and having a piston rod extending to the front end of the chassis and there connected with the bell crank lever.

3. A manipulator comprising, a chassis, a Work manipulating peel, a peel-carrying frame at the front end of the chassis in which the peel is journaled, a shaft journaled in the chassis at the front end thereof, levers mounted on the shaft and connected with the peel-carrying frame for supporting and raising and lowering it, links connected between the chassis and the peel-carrying frame vertically spaced from and parallel with said levers for maintaining the peel substantially horizontal, an actuating lever carried by the shaft, a fluid pressure cylinder at the rear end of the chassis having a piston rod extending to the front end of the chassis and there con nected to said actuating lever, and shock absorbing means in the connection between the piston rod and said actuating lever.

EDGAR E. BROSIUS. 

